WASHINGTON — All eight finalists fit into a 160-character tweet this morning.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted the cities that have successfully completed the first stage of bidding for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Denver is officially in the running against Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Phoenix to host the four-day party that will likely draw up to 50,000 visitors and VIPs.

Colorado Republican leaders have been toiling to get the bid ready since last fall. It has broad bi-partisan support, including Denver’s Democratic Mayor Michael Hancock and both of Colorado’s two Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall.

Party Chair Ryan Call lugged Colorado brews and sports paraphernalia to the RNC winter meeting in D.C. earlier this month in the first stop at wooing the site selection committee.

Party officials will look at hotel and convention capacity, the willingness to raise up to $50 million to host, and the draw of the city overall.

Call has said that Denver’s successful 2008 Democratic National Convention is proof the city is ready to host another party.

Priebus will further discuss the bidding process next week. Party officials decided that the 2016 convention will be held earlier in the summer, late June or early July, to allow the presidential candidate to use general election funds earlier in the cycle.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet penned a letter Friday to Republican Chairman Reince Priebus in support of Denver’s bid to host the 2016 Republican National Convention.

“We ask that you give Denver’s application every appropriate consideration,” the letter said. “Denver has had a successful history of hosting large events, including Pope John Paul II’s historic visit in 1993, the 2008 Democratic convention and the first presidential debate of 2012.”

The letter boasts the city’s more than 300 days of sunshine per year and its 8,400 hotel rooms and 300 restaurants all fairly close to downtown.

“It has a safe, walkable downtown area providing easy access to a range of entertainment and cultural activities,” the letter said. “By 2016, we expect the completion of a brand new light rail line that will allow visitors to travel directly from Denver International Airport to the heart of downtown.”

Denver’s Republicans are bidding to host the four-day party in mid-summer 2016. Other cities vying to host include Kansas City, Las Vegas and Dallas.

The 2008 Democratic National Convention generated a $266.1 million economic boon to metro Denver from the 50,000 guests, including 6,000 delegates, 18,000 national and international media, and 26,000 dignitaries, according to an economic-impact report.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Cory Gardner has asked President Barack Obama to look into relief for spiking propane prices plaguing a number of rural homes in his eastern plains district.

Gardner, a Yuma Republican, said propane prices have tripled in recent weeks as the whole country weathers a polar vortex deep freeze that has boosted nationwide demand for the fuel.

Colorado prices, which vary by region and dealer, jumped between mid-January to the end of the month to as much as $6 a gallon from around $2.30, according to dealers.

“We are seeing prices of as much as six dollars a gallon, which is an enormous uptick,” Gardner’s letter to Obama said. “Increased costs are the last thing small businesses and families need while trying to make ends meet. Keeping energy bills as low as possible for struggling Americans should be a top priority for your Administration during this winter season. Doing anything less would place a major economic burden on consumers at a time when they can least afford it.”

Gardner posed a series of questions for the president: Is the Department of Energy seeking any potential relief from these propane prices? Is the Department of Transportation considering a short-term waiver of certain truck limitations for any emergency transport of propane to areas like Colorado that have a high demand? Is there any consideration of other appropriate emergency relief actions?

Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet also joined a handful of senators Friday in urging the Obama administration to help with increased costs for propane — including finding alternative means of transporting the fuel.

Bennet’s office didn’t comment on the meeting. Colorado’s junior senator heads the DSCC, the campaign arm to elect, and re-elect, Democrats to the U.S. Senate.

Bennet’s two-year position is largely defensive in this cycle. A number of red-state Democrats are up for re-election in November, including Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor and North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan.

The DSCC raised $52.6 million in 2013 — more than any other off-year in the group’s history. Through November, it had outraised the Republican equivalent group by $16 million.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday said it acquired land, water and mineral rights in El Paso County to build a new veterans cemetery for southern Colorado.

The Pikes Peak area has one of the highest concentrations of veterans in the country, with the Air Force Academy, Fort Carson Army base and the Air Force Space Command all nestled in the 5th Congressional District.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado Springs, lauded the announcement. The first bill he introduced in Congress several years ago was to bring a VA cemetary to El Paso County.

“It is tremendously exciting to see the hard work and help of so many members of our community pay off after all these years,” he said, in a statement.

Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet echoed the sentiment.

“Our veterans and their families deserve better than to travel hours from home just to pay tribute to their loved ones,” Udall said, in a statement.

Military is big business for the area. The local chamber says roughly 73,000 people work at Colorado Springs-area military installations and defense contractors, with an economic impact for the area at about $6.5 billion.

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Because marijuana is still considered illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, many large commercial banks are wary about dealing with the licensed businesses. As a result, many of the retail shops operate in cash only — something that poses considerable danger to the stores and their employees, the letter said.

“A cash-only system may make it more difficult for the state and federal government to regulate and audit these facilities,” the letter said. “Finally, without access to the banking system, it may become easier for retail stores to avoid sales tax collections, which would diminish funding for marijuana enforcement activites and Colorado school construction.”

(All pot revenue generated by taxes will go to the Colorado Public School Capital Construction Assistance Fund.)

WASHINGTON — Democrat Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet both backed a three-month extension of unemployment benefits in a vote Tuesday, advancing a measure that doesn’t face likely approval in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

The proposal on the Senate floor Tuesday would cost $6.4 billion and would extend those already-expired benefits for 12 additional weeks.

Udall said his No. 1 priority is “pursuing policies that create jobs and keep our economic recovery on track.”

“Today’s bipartisan vote reflects a broad understanding that an unemployment benefits extension is important because it keeps families and children out of poverty while supporting job creation and growing Colorado’s economy,” he said.

An estimated 72,800 unemployed people in the state face an evenutal loss of assistance.
This counts those who would have rolled over this year from state unemployment benefits — which expire at 26 weeks — to federal unemployment benefits, which provide another 37 weeks of help.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Udall gave a Nebraska senator some beer. Sen. Michael Bennet gave a Wyoming senator an old map.

Such is the time of year for the Senate Secret Santas gift exchange, where about three-quarters of the U.S. Senate finds a gift, worth less than $15, for a colleague.

Bennet found a 125 year-old map of Wyoming on Ebay for $8 and gave it to his Republican neighbor to the north, Sen. John Barrasso. Udall gave Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer a pack of New Belgium Accumulation.

(This reporter, who lives in Washington and isn’t up to speed on all the seasonal New Belgium brews, discovered it’s a white pale ale.)

In return, Bennet received some North Carolina-made all natural dog treats from Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. Bennet has a little black dog. Udall received some golf balls from Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, from Florida where it is undoubtedly better golfing this time of year than Colorado.

Rep. Mike Coffman told a KHOW radio show that he was researching whether to sue President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Coffman’s spokesman on Tuesday tried to soften the congressman’s assertion last week that he is looking into whether to sue President Barack Obama on abuse of power, saying, “litigation, legislation — all of it is on the table.”

“Mike Coffman thinks it is an outrage verging on scandal that, thanks to a stroke of President Obama’s pen, members of Congress have been shielded from the disaster that is Obamacare,” said the Aurora Republican’s spokesman Clay Sutton, in a statement.

Last week, Coffman told a Colorado radio station that his Congressional staffers were researching options on how to “take on” the Obama administration. It was a wide ranging answer to a question that touched on the Affordable Care Act, the Senate’s recent changes to filibuster rules and welfare reform.

A left-leaning media critic and blogger uploaded a portion of the interview here.

“It appears right now that we may have to do it, that I may have to do it, or somebody may have to do it as an individual, outside of the Congress, to litigate on one of these issues, the constitutionality,” he said, to KHOW radio’s Mandy Connell show. “He has taken key parts of Obamacare and merely deferred them for political reasons after this election, the employer mandate, a number of other issues … I certainly don’t see where he has the discretion to do that, in the law … It’s gotten totally out of control and if it is allowed to continue, it will really erode the founding principles of this country.”

It’s not unheard of for lawmakers to sue the president of the United States. In 2011, a group of liberal Democrats sued President Obama for not consulting Congress before taking action in Libya. The complaint was eventually thrown out by a judge.

Sutton wouldn’t elaborate beyond the statement Tuesday, but other Republicans are angry that the Office of Personnel Management ruled that the federal government can still subsidize the health insurance for members of Congress.

This subsidy, which amounts to a 75 percent contribution, only comes when the members enroll in the DC health exchange — something Coffman, both of Colorado’s Senate Democrats and GOP Reps. Cory Gardner and Scott Tipton say they are opting out of.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.